Wants to get rid of wet tailings ponds; remains flexible with projects

BY GARY PARK FOR GREENING OF OIL

The Alberta government wants to put an end to wet tailings ponds at the oil sands, now symbolized globally after 1,600 ducks died in the sludge at Syncrude Canada’s plant last year.

Premier Ed Stelmach declared that oil sands producers will be forced to eliminate the ponds within a “few years” because they are damaging Alberta’s international reputation.

“It means we are going to have to force—when I say force, we’re going to get more aggressive—and work with companies presently in open pit mining to move to either dry tailings or develop their resource without wet tailings ponds,” he told reporters.

“It’s going to take an investment. There’s no doubt about it. But we just can’t talk about it. We want to show progress.”

However, Stelmach declined to set a fixed deadline, beyond saying “I know within a matter of a few years we should be able to get there.”

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Criticized for not enforcing new standards

However, his resolve to put more of a greenish tinge on the black bitumen industry had a somewhat hollow sound, coming just a day after his government’s Energy Resources Conservation Board, or ERCB, issued conditional approval for the construction and operation of tailings ponds at two Syncrude Canada sites and Suncor Energy’s proposed Fort Hills project, inherited in its takeover of Petro-Canada, with mining giant Teck Resources and UTS Energy holding 20 percent stakes each.

The verdicts were delivered under rules that require a faster restoration of a hard surface that is suitable for reclamation.

But the ERCB was criticized for falling short of new provincial clean-up standards introduced last year.

The ERCB is allowing Syncrude to treat far less of its mine tailings than the rules issued in February 2009, which orders companies to capture 20 percent of the fine tailings coming from the production process by June 30, 2011, 30 percent a year later and 50 percent by mid-2013 and annually after that.

In Syncrude’s application, which the ERCB acknowledges “did not fully meet the ERCB requirements,” the fine tailings captured at its Mildred Lake site must reach only 9.3 percent this year, 14.6 percent in 2011 and 34.6 percent by 2013-2014.

It said consultations with Syncrude have “seen significant improvements to the company’s plans.”

Government spokesperson offers explanation

A spokesperson for the regulator said Syncrude will attain the 50 percent benchmark by 2014 after it asked for more time to build “large and capital intensive facilities” to create consolidated tailings and because of a competing need for sand in an existing reclamation project.

Suncor has still to meet certain conditions for the undeveloped Fort Hills project, which has yet to gain corporate approval. The ERCB said the company must apply to use new technologies six months before testing them and have no fluid-like deposits of tailings left when it closes the mine.

The ERCB is also reviewing applications by Albian Sands Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil and Royal Dutch Shell.

SUBHEAD Rulings unfair to firms proposing to address tailings problems

The Syncrude and Suncor rulings have spread dissatisfaction among environmentalists, with Greenpeace calling the ERCB a “coward” and Joe Obad, associate director of the environmental group Water Matters, of “coddling” the industry.

Simon Dyer, oil sands program director at the Pembina Institute, said oil sands regulations should not be “negotiable,” arguing Alberta has accepted a plan for Syncrude that doesn’t meet its own rules.

“Not enforcing environmental rules actually stifles innovation and the clean-up that is required. And it is unfair to companies that are proposing to address the tailings problem,” he said.

Contact Gary Park by email at publisher@greeningofoil.com